In many food compositions, it is desirable to incorporate particles of natural food such as fruits, berries, vegetables and the like. Natural food particles are subject to spoilage and deterioration of color, taste, and texture, unless special provisions are made for preserving those particles, e.g., drying and the like. Under the circumstances, it is difficult to incorporate into conventional food compositions particles derived from the natural foods, while maintaining the semi-moist and semi-soft properties thereof, and little success in this effort has been achieved in the art. Raisins, for example, may be incorporated into cereals, since this dried natural food particle retains sufficient moisture to maintain semi-soft and semi-moist properties while yet being preserved. Likewise, dried blueberries may be incorporated into pastries and cakes, such as a conventional muffin mix, since blueberries may be dried to moisture contents such that the product is a semi-moist and semi-soft particle, while also being preserved. However, success of this nature is limited and often the drying causes such changes that the product is not acceptable to the consuming public.
Alternative methods are used to avoid these undesired drying effects. An example is that of "candying" food particle, i.e., infusing such a high level of sucrose, and sometimes at least in part dextrose, into the food particle that preservation thereof is achieved while still retaining a semi-soft texture. A notable example of this approach is cake which has incorporated therein candied fruits. However, this very high level of sugar not only most significantly changes the taste of the candied fruit, but, particularly with sugar, also allows undesired crystallization of the sugar and even migration of the sugar into surrounding food composition, particularly with dextrose.
Therefore, the art has attempted to avoid these problems with natural food particles by providing a variety of simulated natural food particles. While these efforts have taken a variety of forms, all of these approaches have suffered from one or more serious disadvantages. For example, a semi-soft jellied and flavored composition may be encapsulated in a relatively impervious capsule for dispersion in the food composition. However, the impervious encapsuled particle is normally relatively hard and the immediately encountered texture during mastication is not semi-moist or semi-soft but hard and brittle, very unlike the natural food particle. The opposite approach has also been suggested where a jellied and flavored simulated food particle is incorporated into a food composition. In this case, without the imprevious protecting encapsulant, the flavors and colors of the simulated food particle tend to "bleed" into the surrounding food composition. For example, a blueberry muffin made with simulated blueberry particles may well result in a muffin which is either entirely blue or where great areas have been turned blue by bleeding of the blue color from the simulated blueberry particles. Likewise, the flavors can bleed into the muffin and instead of having a muffin with descrete bits of simulated blueberry particles, the muffin may have a relatively homogeneous blueberry taste. This is, of course, unacceptable for most applications.
The art has attempted to avoid the aforementioned problem by gelling the simulated particles with gelling agents such as gums, e.g., alginates and the like, so that the bleeding of the color and flavor is mitigated. However, with these approaches the resulting food particle no longer remains semi-moist and semi-soft but more closely approximates the texture of a candy "gum drop". Similar efforts depend on combinations of high melting point fats, gelatinized starch and combinations of sucrose and dextrose, but these are relatively expensive and the high melting point fat gives a somewhat "waxy" mouth feel. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,671,264 for an example of this effort in the art.
These prior art approaches have experienced additional difficulties when dealing with natural flavors. As can be appreicated, imitation flavors can be highly concentrated and only a small amount will provide sufficient flavoring for a simulated food particle. On the other hand, when natural flavors are used, e.g., concentrated juices and the like, the required volume for adequate flavoring is often much greater. Further, the natural ingredients of the concentrated natural flavors can adversely affect the properties of the simulated food particles and, in extreme cases, cause de-gelation of the particles. Accordingly, the prior art approaches have not been able to satisfactorily flavor the food particles with both imitation and natural flavors, and this is a decided disadvantage since the range of flavors are correspondingly limited and the trueness of the flavor imparted to the simulated food particle is often less than desired.
Finally, these prior art approaches have often resulted in particles which are not truly shelf stable. With time the particles often lose moisture and correspondingly lose the semi-soft texture. This usually occurs by bleeding of the moisture into the surrounding food composition and a corresponding dehydration of the simulated food particle. Further, these simulated particles are often substantially deteriorated by elevated temperatures and the jellied texture can be substantially changed to a more brittle texture, and in some cases the elevated temperatures can cause excessive bleeding of the simulated food particle. Shelf stability is often further deteriorated by bacterial action, especially with the higher moisture contents of the simulated food particles.
As can therefore be easily appreciated, these difficulties in the art have resulted in simulated food particles which have properties that are considerably less that than which is desired. It would, therefore, be of decided advantage in the art to provide such food particles which obviate these difficulties.